10 Things WWE Wants You To Forget About Rhea Ripley
3. The 2022 Charlotte Flair Programme
The polarising ThunderDome was a means to an end for WWE as they continued to try and navigate the restrictions of the global pandemic without AEW's miracle method of simply telling good stories, but never did the fake crowd noises ring as hollow as when they were responding to Rhea Ripley and Charlotte Flair's risible back-and-forths.
Here's the thing - the pair were starting to circle the all-timer chemistry that awaited them in 2023. Money In The Bank 2021 is a particular highlight of what the two managed bell-to-bell, but a series of excruciating promo exchanges between the two left Ripley drowning just as much as their WrestleMania match had one year earlier.
Flair sold almost nothing Ripley ever said, neutering one-liners that weren't even that potent anyway. Yet again, it was impossible to discern who was the heel and the babyface on account of how dislikable both came across. As was often the way, lucky loser Nikki Cross was briefly somebody for audiences to gravitate towards, thanks to a briefcase cash-in, but the response to "Nikki A.S.H" was as much an indictment of these supposed unstoppable monsters' trash talk as it was any groundswell of support for another wannabe superhero.